Tillerson tours Europe while everyone wonders if Trump will fire him

Tillerson testifies about authorizations for the use of military force before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington
Thomson Reuters

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has left the US for a diplomatic tour of Europe while stories saying he may be replaced soon swirl around the White House and the media.

Foreign heads of state now have more reason than ever to doubt if Tillerson speaks for the president.

After a rash of stories saying Tillerson would be replaced, Trump and Tillerson both denied it.

BRUSSELS (AP) — What do you do when you're America's top diplomat, fourth in line to the presidency, and the White House makes it publicly known you're living on borrowed time? If you're Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, you brush it off, pack a suitcase and hop a flight to Europe, as if nothing had happened.

Tillerson tours Europe this week under circumstances unparalleled in recent U.S. diplomatic memory. After months of public tensions with President Donald Trump and rumors about Tillerson's future, the White House signaled last week he could be fired — and possibly soon. White House officials told multiple news organizations a plan was afoot to oust Tillerson and replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, a close Trump confidant.

"It's laughable," Tillerson quipped the next day, as aides insisted he was staying in his job.

Yet such damage to Tillerson's standing is not so easily erased — certainly not by a single tweet.

In Belgium, Austria and France this week, Tillerson will contend with European officials who now have more reason than ever to question whether he truly speaks for the president, how much credence to give his policies, and if he'll remain long enough to see them through. For foreign governments, it has created even more uncertainty over dealing with a mercurial administration in which the only voice that seems to matter is that of Trump himself.

Tillerson arrived late Monday in Brussels, seeming at ease as he slipped quietly into a waiting motorcade that ferried him to his hotel. He'll meet with leaders and top diplomats from NATO and the European Union, both headquartered in the Belgian capital. He'll then fly late Wednesday to Vienna for a conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose talks with Tillerson are always closely watched.

The former Exxon Mobil CEO will lastly go to Paris for a final round of meetings before returning to Washington. In each stop, key security issues related to Syria, North Korea, Lebanon and Iran are expected to be high on the agenda.

Though Trump insisted on Twitter that he and Tillerson "work well together," he allowed news stories about Tillerson's impending demise to percolate for more than 24 hours before pushing back. Trump's spokeswoman didn't explicitly dispute that a plan had been hatched to replace Tillerson. Nor did she declare outright Trump's confidence in the Texas oil man.

In Trump's Washington, such is often the way. "Trial balloons" are floated in the press, and competing factions swipe and snipe from behind a cloak of anonymity. It's left to Americans at home to try to discern whether it's happening against the president's wishes or at his direct behest.

Earlier this year, Tillerson clashed bitterly with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and his allies. But Tillerson ultimately remained while Bannon and his associates were pushed out. More recently, Tillerson and his team have bumped heads with Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, and others in Kushner's camp, said several administration officials who weren't authorized to discuss internal disputes and requested anonymity.

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during a bilateral meeting.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon

"I don't know who that is," Corker said after word emerged of the White House plan. "I know he's taken on some tough issues like the reform of the State Department. I know it hasn't gone in a spectacular way."

Aiming to preserve Tillerson's ability to serve as America's face overseas, senior State Department officials have dismissed the White House plan as "baseless speculation" and a "distraction." State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tillerson likes his job and had been given no indication his days were numbered.

"As long as he is serving at the pleasure of the president, he will continue to do that job," Nauert said.